After a one hour and 25 minute rain delay, the Washington Nationals finished off the Giants for a 9-3 win. The Nationals chased Tim Lincecum early, putting eight runs on the board against the struggling former Cy Young winner. With an early holiday start at 11:05 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided to remove most of the key members of his lineup even before the tarp came out.
After the delay, Bryce Harper added to the offense by knocking in the ninth run of the night in the eighth inning. Mark DeRosa led off by taking a Javier Lopez pitch the other way to the right field wall. He was erased on a Stephen Lombardozzi fielder's choice but Harper stepped into the box and took Lopez the other way down the line to score Lombardozzi from first. It was the rookie's 14th double of the season.
The rain delay ended Jordan Zimmermann's night but not before he was credited with another quality start and improved his record to 5-6 on the season. Zimmermann struck out seven and did not walk a batter in his six innings of work. The bullpen did its job to move the final three innings along without yielding a big rally, leading Davey Johnson to bring on Henry Rodriguez for the first time since his stint on the DL. The hard-throwing righty came on with two outs in the top of the ninth to get some work. He struck out Ryan Theriot with a 100 mph fastball to end the game.
The Wednesday 4th of July matinee special will feature Edwin Jackson against Madison Bumgarner as the Nats go for a series-clinching win.
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